Named Hope with Heart, the one-week program in Warwick, N.Y., is a retreat for kids with heart defects. There the youngsters can escape the stigmas of health problems, enjoy support and make lasting friendships through a common bond.

So it was only natural that when John Griffin, an engineer at Silverstein Properties in the World Trade Center, died that June would turn to a different camp to help her young daughters, Julie and Jenna, deal with the tragedy.

Julie, now 18, jumped at the chance to go to America's Camp, a one-week program in White Plains, N.Y., exclusively for kids who lost immediate family members on 9/11, while Jenna, now 21, stayed by her mom's side.

"It's honestly changed my life," Julie said. "The fact that I was able to talk about it right away really helped me. I think because I was able to share and talk about it and not have to hold anything back, I'm stronger."

Julie talks about America's Camp as the only place where she can truly be herself. Over the last 10 years, she has gained friends, perspective and comfort in knowing she is not alone.

"It's not like you're the outcast or the one without a dad or a mom," Julie said. "People understand the little things. Almost every day I look at the clock at 9:11 and I thought it was just me, but all my friends at camp do the same thing and we just have these little things like that, so when something does come up, or I miss my dad, they're the ones I can talk to."

Julie was a counselor at the camp, which held its last session in August because, as the years have passed, the number of children of 9/11 victims has declined.

She also has attended Project Common Bond, a camp which draws teens all over the world who have been impacted by terrorism, since its inception four years ago.

While America's Camp has "normal" camp activities, Project Common Bond sets aside time each morning for the campers to share their stories.

"There is such a language barrier sometimes, but you still kind of get each other because you have the same feeling and same hurt you've all been through," Julie said, adding that she made friends with teens from Sri Lanka, Russia, Spain and Ireland. "We take our experiences and share them and think about how we can go out and change the world and make it so there is no more terrorism. We try and make it so there is no one else that has to feel the way we do."

Julie's memory of the events that took place on 9/11 is spotty. She was a fourth-grader at Crescent Elementary School when relatives came to take her and Jenna home.

"It was kind of chaotic," Julie recalls, sitting on a stool in her kitchen. "Even though people were saying things, I didn't know what they were talking about. I didn't know what terrorism was and not even adults could really grasp what was happening.

"My grandpa came up to me and told me bad people did something to where my dad worked and that's all I could really grasp at the time."

John was 38 years old, tall - 6 feet 8 - and a "goofball" and a "gentle giant," Julie said.

John's height helped him save an older man from an elevator shaft on that day, Julie said, because he was the only one tall enough to pry the top of the doors apart.

"But then I think he actually went back to help more people and I think that's when the buildings collapsed," Julie said. "I was kind of angry knowing that he went to go save other people instead of thinking about coming home to his family. That bothered me but now I know he's a hero."

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Julie thinks about just some of the many moments she's missed not having her father around.

"People think that it's just the anniversaries, birthdays and holidays, and it's true, those really are hard times, but every day [you have to] keep your head up and think positive," she said. "It's little things like learning how to drive and applying for college, or my first day of college that you just kind of wish he was there for, and you just have to keep going, I guess."

Julie feels that by going after her dreams - which currently means graduating from the University of Tampa and pursuing a career in elementary education - she is making her father proud.

She also continues to be inspired by her mother, who has kept Hope With Heart alive in John Griffin's wake.